AEDs: extreme camping edition.

June 21, 2013 11:40 AM

Please help me find the perfect automatic external defibrillators for wildland fire crews! These AEDs will be exposed to extreme temps and altitudes, smoke, dirt, possible water immersion, guaranteed rough handling, and then months of neglect while being stored in the 'off' season - a.k.a winter. Potential operators will be laypeople, EMTs or Paramedics, most with limited medical experience. So a simple and straightforward model, without a lot of bells/whistles/maintenance needs, is preferred. Probably goes without saying: reliability is priority one, but the more budget-friendly, the better. Many thanks, hivemind!
posted by Kibby to Health & Fitness (5 answers total)

The AED Pro is very rugged; their promotional videos show it being thrown around and driven over by a fire truck. I think there used to be one where it got partially melted by a fire and still worked, but I can't find it at the moment.

It's mostly designed for first responders; for lay folks, Zoll also has the AED Plus, which has a lot more pictures and such designed for people with no medical training.
posted by Melismata at 11:49 AM on June 21, 2013

A paramedic hardly has "limited medical experience" and could, for example, establish transcutaneous pacing for someone in complete heart block, intubate someone in respiratory arrest, or run through the complete ACLS algorithm in event of a cardiac arrest, without missing a beat. (Pardon the pun.)

If you're going to have an actual licensed paramedic around, why not get a few basic push-button AEDs for the laypeople and at least one portable defibrillator/pacer/heart monitor that can do ECGs, pulse oximetry, and capnography? You can run a full code with one of them, including post-ROSC monitoring until transport to a higher level of care arrives.
posted by jesourie at 12:24 PM on June 21, 2013

You could always just get a good standard AED and then put it in a Pelican case with good foam blocking to keep it stable. Waterproof, floats, extreamily rugged...
posted by edgeways at 2:59 PM on June 21, 2013

I think this reseller would probably be qualified to give you advice.
posted by Dansaman at 12:00 AM on June 22, 2013

Response by poster: Not to threadsit, but I should probably clarify something: the vast majority of federal wildland crews do wildfires and nothing else. Unlike urban and city structure fire departments, most aren't dispatched to medical calls. Thus, a crew's EMT or Paramedic is unlikely to make many, or any, patient contacts in the course of their job. That's what the 'limited medical experience' comment intended to convey. That's also why a simpler AED would be preferable for most crews. I would LOVE to get a variety of 'em, but we don't have the world's most robust budget right now. Everyone's suggestions so far are helpful and will be researched. Thanks.

FWIW, the big federal wildland agencies (Forest Service, BLM, BIA, NPS, etc.) are beginning to offer cross-training to EMS resources from structural departments and ambulance companies in an effort to get highly qualified and experienced folks out on the fireline, but the program is still fairly new.
posted by Kibby at 7:03 PM on June 22, 2013